1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus capable of reading images, having an installation unit for installing an image reading head.
2. Related Background Art
Conventional printers are generally of such a type as to receive data from a computer and record data on a recording sheet in accordance with the contents of the data thus received. In recent years, however, there have been made available those printers provided not only with a printing function, but also with the function to read image data recorded on a recording sheet, such as are used for copying machine and facsimile equipment, among others. Complex type printers, which are capable of recording and reading, are increasingly in demand.
To meet with such demands, there have been proposed printers in which the image reading function is added to the recording function (as disclosed in the specifications of Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-20832, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-21711, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-21712, for example).
In any one of these publications, it is intended to make those functions possible by exchanging the head units for reading and recording, while sharing the sheet feeding system for both uses.
Meanwhile, as recording methods of a printer, the ink jet method takes the lead currently over the dot-impact, thermal transfer, electronic photography, and other methods. An ink jet printer is one that discharges liquid ink from the recording head to record on a recording sheet. The carriage having a recording head and an ink tank or an ink supply mechanism, such as ink supply tube, installed on it, is caused to travel in the scanning direction for recording on the sheet.
For an ink jet printer, a cap is provided to prevent the recording head from drying out, and also, to close the nozzle surface of the head in an air-tight manner so as to avoid any ink leakage from the recording head when recording does not occur. Here, in this respect, if dust particles clog the nozzles of the recording head or air enters them, defective recording may ensue. In order to recover them under such conditions, the aforesaid cap is provided with a recovery mechanism having a pump to suck ink by arranging a conductive connection between the pump and the cap.
FIG. 46 shows one structural example of the information processing apparatus provided with the conventional ink jet recording apparatus described above.
The printer unit 401 (recording apparatus) of the information processing apparatus 400 shown in FIG. 46 comprises an aperture 406a for use in cleaning the white reference; an aperture 406b for use in the exchanging operation; and an aperture 406c for use in jamming disposition. However, there is a trend to make the recording apparatus, serving as the printer unit 401 or the information processing apparatus and others using such recording apparatus smaller. The need for its portable use is increasing, making it necessary to provide a housing that provides a higher rigidity so that the apparatus withstands being carried around.
Also, for an ink jet printer of this kind, it is necessary to discharge ink from the ink discharge ports as a liquid. Therefore, the circumference of the recording head (ink jet recording head) tends to be wet due to the ink. It is inevitable that the circumference of the cap becomes wet when capping is conducted to cover the ink discharge ports of the recording head. Also, the fine droplets created separately from the discharged ink liquid or finely spreading droplets created when the ink liquid impacts upon a recording medium, that is, the so-called ink mist, tend to float in the space in the apparatus. Such ink mist often occurs in a larger quantity in the case of a color recording where plural kinds of color ink liquid are impacted one after another; where highly precise recording occurs in which fine ink droplets are impacted in high density; where high speed recording occurs in which the ink discharge is greater per hour; and where recording occurs by means of a small printer whose interior space is small accordingly.
When an image reading head, serving as functional elements to read images, is installed on a carriage or the like for an ink jet printer of the kind, it is found that the influence of ink as described above produces an adverse effect on the performance of the reading head. In other words, a problem is encountered that the quality of reading performance is lowered due to ink adhesion to the reading head and the member providing the white reference for color correction.
Also, it is found that particularly when a printer of a serial scanning type is employed, the unstable speed before the carrier (carriage) arrives at a constant speed produces an adverse effect on recording images or reading them for recording or reading images of the scanner (reading head) immediately after the carrier is caused to start traveling for recording or reading the images provided by a scanner. If any uneven component, especially resulting from such unstable speed, is included in the images read out by the scanner, there is encountered a problem that the quality of recorded images is conspicuously degraded by the presence of such an uneven component that may be combined with the further unevenness occurring at the time of recording.
With a view to solving the problems described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of sufficiently performing the image reading function of the image reading head when an ink jet recording apparatus is used with an image reading head installed on it.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus having a recording function to record images on sheet material when an ink jet recording head discharging ink from ink discharge ports is installed thereon, and an image reading function to read images from a sheet material when an image reading head is installed thereon. The ink jet recording head includes a discharge port surface having the ink discharge ports formed thereon. The image reading head includes an image reading surface for reading images. The apparatus comprises a member abutting upon and arranged to be in contact with the ink discharge port surface of the ink jet recording head when the ink jet recording head is installed. The member is also arranged so as not to be in contact with the image reading surface of the image reading head when the image reading head is installed.
In addition, according to another aspect of the present invention, the apparatus comprises a carriage capable of mounting the ink jet recording head and the image reading head, a head contacting member provided opposed to the carriage in a moving area of the carriage, an image reading head positioning mechanism for positioning the image reading head on the carriage when the image reading head is installed on the ink jet recording apparatus. The mechanism positions and mounts the image reading surface of the image reading head at a position out of contact with the head contacting member. Also provided is a recording head positioning mechanism for positioning the ink jet recording head on the carriage when the ink jet recording head is installed on the ink jet recording apparatus. The recording head positioning mechanism positions and mounts the recording head discharge port surface at a position contactable by the head contacting member.
It is another object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing the reading quality of the image reading head from being degraded due to ink adhesion to the head and the white reference member when the image reading head is installed on an ink jet recording apparatus.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing ink from adhering to the image reading head from the member that abuts upon the ink jet recording head when the image reading head is installed on an ink jet recording apparatus.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing ink from adhering to the image reading head from the member that recovers ink discharged by the ink jet recording head when the image reading head is installed on an ink jet recording apparatus.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing the reading quality of the image reading head from being degraded due to the adhesion of ink mist created in the apparatus to the white reference member when the image reading head is installed on an ink jet recording apparatus.
It is another object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of easily cleaning off the ink mist in the apparatus that adheres to the white reference member, and also, preventing the rigidity of the housing of the apparatus from being lowered when the image reading head is installed on an ink jet recording apparatus.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus having a recording function to record images on a sheet material by installing on it the ink jet recording head that discharges ink from the ink discharge ports, and an image reading function to read images from a sheet material by installing the image reading head on the ink jet recording apparatus, including the following:
the discharge port surface of the ink jet recording head where the ink discharge ports are formed;
the image reading surface of the image reading head where images are read out to the image reading head; and
a member abutting upon the ink discharge port surface arranged to be in contact with the ink discharge port surface of the ink jet recording head, this member abutting upon the ink discharge port surface being arranged so as not to be in contact with the image reading surface of the image reading head.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus of a serial type having a carrier capable of installing a recording head cartridge or a scanner head whose configuration is substantially the same as the recording head cartridge, being caused to scan in a direction orthogonal to the feeding direction of a sheet and in parallel to one face of such sheet, wherein the distance from one face of the sheet to the reading face of the scanner head is larger than the distance from one face of such sheet to the discharge port surface of the recording head cartridge.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus of a serial type provided with a carrier detachably installing a recording head cartridge and a scanner head to cause them to travel selectively for recording on a recording medium when the recording head cartridge is installed, and reading a source document being fed in the same sheet path as the aforesaid recording medium when the scanner head is installed, wherein the gap between a source document and the closest part of the scanner head to the source document is larger than the gap between a recording medium and the closest part of the recording head cartridge to the recording medium.
It is another object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus provided exchangeably with traveling means for holding recording means for recording by use of ink, and reading means; recovering means for recovering the performance of the recording means; and sheet feeding means for feeding a sheet, including the following:
controlling means for making the traveling range of traveling means smaller at the time of reading means being installed on the traveling means than the traveling range at the time of recording means being installed.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus of a serial type having a carrier capable of installing a recording head cartridge or a scanner head whose configuration is substantially the same as the recording head, being caused to scan in the direction different from the feeding direction of a sheet and along one face of the sheet, wherein the standard stop position of the carrier at the time of the scanner head being installed thereon is different from the standard stop position of the carrier at the time of the recording head cartridge being installed thereon depending on the scanning directions of the carrier.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus of a serial type provided with a carrier detachably installing a recording head cartridge and a scanner head to cause them to travel selectively for recording on a recording medium when the recording head cartridge is installed, and reading a source document being fed in the same sheet path as the recording medium when the scanner head is installed, wherein the standard stop position of the carrier at the time of the scanner head being installed thereon is different from the standard stop position of the carrier at the time of the recording head cartridge being installed thereon depending on the scanning directions of the carrier; and the gap between the source document and the closest portion of the scanner head to the source document is larger than the gap between the recording medium and the closest portion of the recording head cartridge to the recording medium.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of installing recording means for recording on a recording sheet and optically reading means for reading images from the recording sheet on a carrier that reciprocates on the straight line in directions orthogonal to the feeding direction of the recording sheet, wherein the white reference serving as the reference of the reading level of the optically reading means is arranged in a plurality on the traveling path of the carrier facing the optically reading means. It is another object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus of a serial type being housed in a housing, comprising:
a carrier capable of installing a recording head cartridge or a scanner head whose configuration is substantially the same as the recording head cartridge, and being caused to scan in a direction orthogonal to the feeding direction of a sheet and in parallel to one face of the sheet; and
a white reference capable of being read by the scanner head within the scanning range of the carrier, and being arranged on the side opposite to the home position where the ink discharge ports of the recording head cartridge are capped, wherein:
the exchanging position of the recording head cartridge and the scanner head to be installed on or removed from the carrier is set at a location close to the white reference; and
apertures are arranged for the housing to be utilized when installing or removing the recording head cartridge or the scanner head on or from the carrier, and also, when cleaning the white reference.